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The Halloween Kids Meet the Headless Specter
The Halloween Kids Meet the Headless Inspecter is a 2001 Canadian Halloween special that serves as a sequel to The Halloween Kids. This film was produced without input from Savage Steve Holland, who had a hand in the previous film. Both Holland and Elliot Strange conflicted over what they wanted to do for the sequel and opted to release their own at different intervals. Holland cancelled his version after feeling Strange did his version better. Plot The film begins with a story detailing the origin of the Headless Inspecter. The Headless Inspecter was a food critic and building inspector that got his head chopped off by an irate butcher who gave his business a poor review. Now the Headless Inspecter could only be summoned through a spell in a long lost book and a human sacrifice. It's revealed that this story was told by Flip's grandfather and that the Halloween Kids are attending Flip's birthday party. Flip's father brings out burgers for the kids and they eat and talk amongst themselves about the story. Both decide not to worry about it since no one found the summoning book, but would the specter return, they would do everything they could to stop it. Randall and Russell soon arrive with cases of donuts and tell the rest of the gang to go to the neighborhood and introduce themselves to build a personal trust between themselves and the community in the case of a paranormal occurrence. It then cuts to Tommy, an annoying kid from their class who previously vouched for Royce the Stinamal, who's having a nightmare about becoming a thoughtless drone. He wakes up and sees the Halloween Kids handing out donuts and introducing themselves to the rest of the community. The kids go to Tommy's house and his parents convince them to talk to him. They go to his room and are unwillingly put through a series of traps. Tommy reveals that he set up the trap system to word off any adults. The gang don't want anything to do with him since he hasn't disowned Royce and won't go easy on Alison and Colleen. He gets angered when they refer to the adults as he's an anti authority zealot, which annoy the gang and prompt them to leave. Tommy declares that he will create a superior paranormal investigation group. The kids later head to Riccardi's Pizzeria for lunch, and he offers to give them more at a lower price if they do some exterminating for him. They do it to further their current positive image and are rewarded accordingly. They go to the abandoned house (now dubbed Farghaton Manor) to eat and discuss their plans for tonight. Everyone comes out empty, so they decide to just wander around town until something interesting comes along. It cuts to Tommy who's trying to recruit members for his rival group, but comes out short since people are put off by his personality. His sister Marie follows along and offers to help him, but he turns her down harshly. He attempts to make an announcement to the town by hacking into the town's PA system, but it causes a series of events that lead to Flip's grandfather's house catching fire. The gang see the smoke and rush over. They're disheartened to find Flip's grandfather has died. Under the request of the mayor and Flip's father, the grandfather is buried near the manor so the kids could easily visit him. The kids offer to cheer up Flip by hosting a seance so Flip could say goodbye to him one last time, while getting closure on what led to the fire, and he agrees to it. While setting up for the seance, Mandy searches for the right chapter in her book that contains the summoning spell. After performing it, the Headless Inspecter is brought to life since they unknowingly read the summoning spell for him. They manage to evade him after he gets distracted by Duke, and the ghost heads out. It goes to Tommy who's wandering by himself. He comes across an old oak tree with an opening down below. He looks in the opening and discovers a skull. The ghost finds him and upon recognizing the skull (the Headless Inspecter had a bolt in his skull from a surgical procedure), he becomes Tommy's servant, but requires a human sacrifice. Tommy offers to sacrifice Marie, and after converting her bedroom into a portal, the specter takes her into his void. Tommy orders the specter to make the Halloween Kids look bad and bring more positive attention to him. It works as people refuse to associate with the Halloween Kids, leaving them out of a job. They realize that Tommy's the only one who would want anyone to hate them and they go to confront him, but find the Headless Inspecter waiting for them. Tommy claims that he's under attack by the Specter and needs their help getting rid of him. The kids search the book, hoping to find a way to send the Specter back where he came from. Dante, Devlin, Damien and Tiberius stall for time by stealing the Specter's head. They find the spell, and upon reading it, the Specter gets sucked into a portal. However, Alison gets pushed into the void by Tommy and Alison's friends try to get her back out but get sucked in with her and the portal shuts. Tommy's dad comes up and asks what happened, but Tommy refuses to talk to him, running out. The dad then goes to look for Marie, but has no luck finding her. Back to the kids, they descend into the Headless Inspecter's void and wind up in a distorted looking variation of their town. They come across a weeping ghost, who introduces itself as Sorrow. The kids learn that it was the butcher from the story about the Headless Inspecter, and that Sorrow is the embodiment of spiritual emotional turmoil. The kids ask if there's a way to escape the void, but the Sorrow has no idea. He does offer to help them find a way and he leads them through the void. Back to Tommy, his parents are looking for Marie, and Tommy shows no remorse. A report plays regarding the Headless Inspecter, and Tommy's father correctly believes Tommy had a hand in it, learning the mythos behind it from Flip's grandfather. Tommy's father punishes Tommy, but Tommy runs away. Back to the kids, they find the spirit of Flip's grandfather. He offers to help the children return home, claiming that the one way the void could open is for Sorrow to confront the Headless Inspecter. They continue to wander and come across Marie, crying and alone. She claims she is Tommy's sister, and points out how mean he is to her. The kids want to help her return home and hopefully get back at Tommy. Back in reality, The Headless Inspecter returns to Tommy, getting the full brunt of how horrible he has been, but Tommy refuses to improve and wants him to take over the town. The specter ditches him and Tommy tries summoning him again, but opens the void. Sorrow takes the opportunity to go through the portal and confront the Headless Inspecter head on. Both make peace and decide to turn against Tommy while allowing the other kids to escape. Flip and his grandfather give each other a final goodbye as Tiberius heads through the portal whilst the others hold on. Tommy tries to close the void while the kids struggle to get through. With help from Flip's grandfather, they all get through. Sorrow and the Headless Inspecter then confront Tommy, and he gets knocked into the void by Marie, trapping him in there. The ghosts commend the kids for helping to relive them of their burdens, and they get to move on to the afterlife. The kids cheer up Marie, who then tells them she wants to be like them when she grows up. The kids then depart for their headquarters, having forgotten about Duke, and they make up for it by playing with him. After the credits, we see that Tommy has manifested spiritual powers and plans to return to town and take it over. Cast * Mae Whitman: Alison * Melissa Fahn: Colleen * Peter Kelamis: Sparky * David Paul Grove: Brighton * Matt Hill: Dante * Tony Sampson: Devlin * Daniel DeSanto: Damien * Chantal Strand: Kelsey * Stacey DePass: Priscilla * Alyson Court: Jenny * Ian James Corlett: Randall * Richard Ian Cox: Russell * Lee Tokar: Tiberius * Carrie Finlay: Sam * Lenore Zann: Julie * Sarah Gadon: Ori * Jason Burke: Flip * Brian Drummond: Jerry * Erin Fitzgerald: Mandy * Kath Soucie: Tommy * Amber Hood: Marie * Gene Mack: Flip's dad * Nick LaTour: Flip's grandfather * Elliot Gould: The Headless Inspecter * John Vernon: Sorrow Trivia * Strange originally intended to have Tommy killed off at the end, but the production company wouldn't allow it. He admitted that it was a fair thing to do as it allowed him to include a proper antagonist in the Halloween Kids TV series.